A NOTE ABOUT MY STYLE:
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My writing is true to my life, comedy-based and narrative-driven.
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My performances are immersive (as a way to explore Buber's "I-Thou" theory). The audience doesn't just watch me - I invite them to build out their very own personal stakes in my story by using some original element of audience participation.
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I'm usually juggling multiple performative elements on-stage -- not always successfully. I love the idea of subverting the audience/performer relationship by being a little out-of-control on stage.
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As someone dear to me once said: “I like live performance because it ends”.
Awards:
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2022: Recipient of "The Lab" Artist Residency with Long Wharf Theater
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2022: Recipient of "WOOF" Development Residency at Brooklyn Comedy Collective
"HUM" (2023)
Story Description: At 10 years old, I became consumed with the question ‘what will happen next?’. When I couldn’t find an answer in my uncertain world, my body gave me one: a hum. But when my hum was diagnosed as mild Tourette’s syndrome, medication took it away. I was left with a question, no answer, and a quest to find something – or someone – to reunite me with that mysterious good feeling.
“Hum” explores the complicated role of shame in treating mental illness, and the humor that exists at the intersection of clinical neurodivergence and everyday anxiety. Rather than getting rid of our tics, what if we imagine a world where tic-ing wasn’t wrong?
Performance Description:
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Everyone in the audience has a speaking role: either they're "The Weatherman" or they're my mom. In the role of my mom, they read lines I project behind me in "conversation" with me. I transcribed those lines directly from an actual interview I did with my mom.
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In every performance, I'm joined on-stage by a new musician. They have nothing prepared - instead, they're hearing the story for the first time and they're invited to craft a live-improvised musical score.
Awards:
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2020: Recipient of Summer Residency at Experimental Bitch Presents
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4.5 Stars on ReviewsHub.com
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Playbill's "What to Watch", February 2021
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Adapted into a New York Times audio op-ed
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Podcast interview on Spotify's list of "Best Podcast Episodes of the Month", August 2021
For a list of/links to all press + a virtual experience of the show, visit www.delejos.net
"DELEJOS (FROM AFAR)" (2021)
Just before the onset of the pandemic, I unexpectedly lost my partner Jose Zambrano to a random act of violence. "Delejos (from afar)" is my exploration of my grief. The show asks the question "Do we lose something simply because we’re far from it?".
Story Description: On our first date, Jose told me about his work-in-progress virtual reality video game "Delejos" - a game about overcoming physical separation, inspired by his own experience of forced immigration from Venezuela. By his design, players set out to connect to something they love - from afar. What was clear to me, in that moment, was that he was turning his grief into an adventure for the world to play. What I couldn't yet see is that I would soon have to take that journey myself. So I embarked on the adventure, and I took a trip through his game.
Performance Description:
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I wrote and directed the show for Zoom to further explore the central theme of forced separation.
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I live-scored the story, as I told it, on my electric guitar.
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I built two "sets", which I toggled back and forth between through the act of shifting my laptop.
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The story weaved in and out of an "at home VR experience", where audiences closed their eyes and I guided them, with audio, through an alternate universe in their imagination.
JULIE FOR PRESIDENT: AN IMMERSIVE BIRTHDAY (2022)
Experience Description: I felt some trepidation about turning 30, so as a way of shoring up the confidence, I decided to run for President of the 30th birthday.
My presidential platform? When we turn 30, we should face the fear head-on and get tattoos on our foreheads that say “I’m 30”.
Somewhere through the filming of my campaign video, I grew a little doubtful of the idea. A tattoo? On my face? So I invited my friends to come compete against me, on their own platforms.
What unfolded was a night of impromptu stump speeches, a mysterious manatee who entered the race, phone banking to my family, friends and boss, slander leaked to the press, betrayal, a suspenseful final vote, and victory. Which I definitely, definitely I wanted. Ha ha. Anyway, thanks guys. I love my new tattoo.
